Chicago Tribune
                    September 16, 1991, Monday, City Edition

SECTION: LIVING; Pg. 45

LENGTH: 419 words

HEADLINE: Punk lives again in Mudhoney,  Superchunk;
MUSIC REVIEW MUDHONEY and  SUPERCHUNK  At: The Channel, Friday night.

BYLINE: By Jim Sullivan, Globe Staff

BODY:

    Punk rock, as the pundits had it, is dead. Long dead. First buried after the
Sex Pistols crashed in 1978, buried again when hard-core punk petered out in the
mid-'80s, and buried once more when Husker Du played its swan song at the end of
the '80s.

   Fair enough. But if punk's a corpse, it sure is a mean crypt kicker.

See, what happens is this: A new generation of wound-up, ticked-off kids gets
their hands on punk's throttle, discovers the simple cathartic pleasure of
fast-and-loud-and-angry, and lets it rip. Friday night's cases in point at the
Channel: Mudhoney, the pride and joy of the hip independent Sub Pop label and
the highly touted Seattle scene, and Superchunk, a hard-rocking quartet from
Chapel Hill, N.C., which records for former Bostonian Gerard Cosloy on his
Matador label.

   Here's what the Channel crowd got: A heaping helping of grunge, muck, anger,
abrasion, distorted guitar noise, black humor, agitation and rampaging
exuberance. Also, sharp melodies and dynamic tension. But no showbiz. These two
bands are matter-of-factly anti-technology, and they embrace garage-band
aesthetics. And, just as you figured the members of the Ramones or, for that
matter, Guns N' Roses, were once part of the audience they came from and now
play for, so do you figure it here.

   While Superchunk and Mudhoney are separate slices of the same tart pie,
Superchunk's piece has a bit more sugar in it. In fact, as they frequently fuse
catchy choruses, snarling sentiments (sample song titles: "Sick to Move,"
"Varmint," "Throwing Things") and gritty guitar lines, they come off as
Buzzcocks disciples who've learned their lessons well. Superchunk, fronted by
singer Mac McCaughn, played a set of frenzied, listener-friendly punk-pop
thatprobably wouldn't have been taken that way by folks who groove to Top 40.

   Mudhoney, fronted by singer-rhythm guitarist Mark Arm and lead guitarist
Steve Turner, capped the evening by turning up the guitar/distortion factor and,
ever so slightly, toning down the agreeable pop quotient. Certainly, though, not
at the expense of free-form rocking and sly lyrical referencing. I'd be more
specific, but the scribbles in my notebook mostly read "fury and frenzy," and,
really, that was the gist of Mudhoney. A gnarly and knotty band - well-schooled
in the art of pummel-and-thrash, touring in support of their fine "every good
boy deserves fudge" album - Mudhoney proved itself a neat 'n' nasty band for new
hard times. They left us with a message: "Punk lives!"